In splendid nature .....and isolation!

Here’s the poetic host that I was referring to in my last post. How strong these little plants are to break through the cold, hard soil yet they look so delicate!                         

 

Even our succulents, now freed up from winter coverings, are in bloom all with delicate shades of cream and yellow. Here you can see our lovely Leondaris enjoying the warmth of the sunshine!

                 

 

  

         

The primrose is probably the most delicate in form and hue. Sadly ours, replanted from their indigenous semi-Alpen area of the Pelion mountains, have no fragrance.    These lilies have a heady, pungent scent and contrast strongly with the giant cactus leaves.

                                     

One of my favourite scenes is captured here: viewing a clear, azure sky through a rich mist of almond blossom. Our prunus is always the first to bloom, producing particularly thick blossom this year.

                                                          

 

Last Sunday was spent working for over four hours in the garden: weeding, clipping and freeing up the prunus from the periwinkle. It has a beautiful mauve flower, but is fairly relentless in taking over its patch! Since it was my birthday I had fully intended to have a lazy day but the forecast was for a 9-day run of rain and I wanted to be able to view from indoors the neat verges during the deluge.

                           

 

And anyway, we are confined to quarters as are most of you. If we venture out beyond the ‘croft’ without a completed form with information about our identity, destination, time and reason for travel, etc. we face a 150 euro fine. I’ve been confined for all of 2 weeks!

            

                                        

Z insists on doing the shopping alone (economic strategy?) and we eke out supplies to avoid him going out too often - we are lucky to have lots of storage space so we’ve got it down to about a twice-a-month sortie.  I do appreciate that he takes on that responsibility.

And that day, on finishing my marathon gardening session, I was met with this scene.

He’d prepared a tasty meze lunch, with the obligatory glass or two of ouzo - bless!                                                                           

                      

Greece Under Threat - Dealing with 'Hosts'!

  This is a not-unrealistic rendition of what Greece is undergoing now, unfortunately.                                                                              

                                                                          

At this time of year we welcome our spring floral visitors, among others Wordsworth’s ‘host of golden daffodils’. Our tragic truth is the host we’ve got is anything but welcome: hordes of illegal immigrants trying to invade the country borders. Now some of these have been living in Turkey for years and speak the language well but have been forcibly moved from their homes, being spun the misinformation that the Greek borders are open and that they can travel on to the European country of their choice- often Germany. As is evident in the second picture they have been transported to the borders in Turkish coaches and taxis!

                  

 

On reaching there, their behaviour is hardly what you would expect from people wishing to gain entry. Here they are burning down the dividing border fence. Z is from Evros and is following the situation regularly. Last week I was surprised to hear his laughter as he was following the morning news coverage: Erdogan’s special forces had been lobbing tear-gas canisters at the Greek border guards, only for the  wind to send it all  right back at them – just deserts! And our lads are an inventive lot: the latest item in their arsenal is, as described below, ‘…. The fan-vehicle which returns the chemical substances to Turkey’!

                             

    

 

These brave young men have been guarding our maritime borders as well. This is no easy task as the immigrants are well coached by NGO members as to how to play the game: as they get near the shore or near port authority vessels, they deliberately sink their inflatable craft to ensure they are picked up rather than be left adrift at sea.  

 

                            

And local people have been wonderful in their support and solidarity. Local ladies showered them with home-made pies, cakes and soft drinks, while farmers came out in force with more than 200 tractors. In this way they could cause a blockade but also use their headlights to help the military personnel detect any river border crossings.

I particularly like this shot of Mr Mitsotakis literally standing firm in the face of adversity. He has persuaded Europe they must eventually help patrol what is essentially part of the European border and I’m happy to report that some are already in place. In reality, Erdogan, aka The Sultan, by upping the force of his game, has forced Europe’s hand on that front.            

               

 

Meanwhile the other ‘host’ that is threatening our country, along with the rest of the world, is the Coronavirus. Our initial diagnosed cases were those who had been in Italy and in the north things have been (and I am touching wood) relatively well controlled. In the south, however, more people were involved. They had come from trips to Jerusalem and on their return to Greece and had mingled in their communities before being tested as positive.

 Now the irony of this is that some Orthodox priests contend that despite the host – another sense!! – being dispensed at services to the Communicants with the same spoon, from the same goblet wiped with the same cloth, they are protected as outlined below: 

                             
The Greek Orthodox Church has issued an official statement, declaring that coronavirus is not transmitted via Holy Communion, and the faithful should pray against the spread of the deadly virus.
The statement called Holy Communion, which represents the body and blood of Christ, an “act of love” that conquers fear. “Whoever attends Holy Communion is approaching God, who has the power to heal,” Metropolitan Seraphim told Greece’s Alpha radio.

 So the church says that Holy Communion will still be observed but curiously insist the faithful restrain from kissing the priests’ hands! L

Humour is often a way of dealing with something serious. Jean Francis Pre, a French chocolatier, has come up with a novel Easter egg design: dark chocolate with red and black almonds – to give that virus crunch!                                                                                          

The Canadian philosopher, Marshall McLuhan, was famous for stating, ‘the medium is the message‘ – so rather than at the content we should look to the medium  to fully understand the real focus of what is  being imparted.    Now I think this Erdogan-graffiti-likeness in the Athens area of Pangrati is amazing and, yes, the medium is totally appropriate. 

        In fact, it is so effective I guess no one will want to er  …….. trash it!!